Russian drones have pummelled the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa, injuring three people and sparking massive fires, officials said.
The attack that underlines Moscow’s intention to pursue aerial attacks even after it agreed to temporarily halt strikes on energy facilities.
The strike came shortly before Czech Republic President Peter Pavel visited Odesa on Friday morning and held meetings with the city’s leaders and officials from other southern regions.
Starting in the evening, Russia attacked regions of Ukraine with over two hundred strike drones and decoy drones. Guided aerial bombs were also used. Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi, and Chernihiv regions came under fire.
As a result of the massive strikes by the… pic.twitter.com/0SKnWgDwMk— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 21, 2025
“This is another reminder to the whole world: the war continues and Ukraine continues to fight,” the head of the Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said in a statement.
He reported blazes at at least three locations after the attack late on Thursday.
“Civilian infrastructure, commercial facilities are on fire, cars damaged,” Mr Kiper said.
Reacting to the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “joint pressure on Russia, strengthening sanctions and defence support for our state … is the way to stop such terror and Russia’s prolongation of the war.”
Mr Zelensky said in a statement on Telegram: “We expect real pressure on Russia from the US, Europe and all our partners. This is what will allow diplomacy to work.”
Over 70 people and 20 fire engines were involved in extinguishing what the emergency services called “massive fires”.
In another attack, Russian glide bombs injured at least six people, including a child, in the Zaporizhzhia region overnight.
Regional head Ivan Fedorov published photos showing fire fighters extinguishing flames at multiple damaged residential buildings.
The Ukrainian air force reported that Russia fired 214 exploding drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks. It said 114 of them were intercepted and another 81 were jammed.
Russia’s defence ministry said air defences shot down 43 Ukrainian drones, 34 of them over the Volgograd region and others over Rostov, Kursk and Belgorod regions.
The authorities did not report any casualties or significant damage.
Meanwhile, a massive blaze at an oil depot in the Krasnodar region has continued to rage since it was hit by a Ukrainian drone attack late on Wednesday.
Ukraine and Russia agreed in principle on Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after US President Donald Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders this week, though it remained to be seen what possible targets would be off limits to attack.
After a roughly hour-long call with Mr Trump on Wednesday, Mr Zelensky told reporters that “technical” talks in Saudi Arabia this weekend would seek to resolve what types of infrastructure would be protected from attack under the agreement.
The three sides appeared to hold starkly different views about what the deal covered. While the White House said “energy and infrastructure” would be covered, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure”.
Mr Zelensky said he would also like railways and ports to be protected.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasised on Friday that the agreement reached between Mr Trump and Mr Putin referred only to energy facilities, adding that the Russian military is fulfilling Mr Putin’s order to halt such attacks for 30 days.
“The Russian military are currently refraining from strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in accordance with the agreement reached between Russia and the United States,” Mr Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
